Thursday, April 21, 2016

As you know, there
is much pressure to cut costs, everywhere, all the time. One of the areas
consistently in the spotlight is the communications budget. Just how much are
you paying your ad agency, digital agency, media agency, PR agency, media
buying agency, social media agency, internal comms agency, shopper marketing
agency, direct marketing agency...? And come to think of it - DO YOU NEED all
those agencies? That's a lot of duplication right there. That's also a lot of
meetings, confusion, lack of integration for your harried and harassed
marketing team to deal with. Right?

Right.

So integration
makes sense. Somehow you'll find a way (or ask your Lead Agency) to build a core team of big thinkers and
surround them with excellent implementation specialists and get the agencies to
build a simple yet complex workflow process that gives you the best talent you need, across disciplines, in one team. Not only will you cut down on
duplication, you'll save money, you'll cut down on the time creative takes to get out, and everyone will be
happy. Right?

Wrong.

Because what's
actually eating up your agency fee and killing your creative product stone dead
(along with a few of the creative talents working on your business) is your own
processes.

Integration is the
only way forward in order for marketers to make sense of every increasing
channels and agency specializations.

But there is no
point getting your agencies to integrate if your own business isn't.

Here are some
thoughts to ponder (and with each one, please imagine the
sound of money going down the drain):

Your
junior marketing team is most likely briefing the agency on work that has
not yet been agreed between your various silos.

That
might require a debrief or a
re-brief and so the cycle will continue. This
time there is possibly a more aligned brief. This is good, although time
and energy and money have been wasted.

After
the agency has got through this stage, the work will be presented to the
CMO, or the CFO, or the CEO, at which point someone might say: "I
don't like it", or "why are we doing this?" And thus the
agencies go back to the beginning.

Or the
C-Suite are dabblers. Or everyone in the team is a dabbler. And they
dabble with a bit of this, and move that to the right, and upweight this
and can’t-we-also-mention that. An agency I was with recently was on revert 56 for a print ad. How different
was it from revert 55, or 54, or even revert 21? Had it been materially
improved? Would the consumer notice or care? What was the cost of that dabbling?

At a certain point creative teams, generally optimistic and
determined to help you, will simply say the worst words imaginable if you're
paying.

"Just. Give. Them. What. They. Want".

Those are expensive
words. Because you are paying for talent and then forcing them to give you
mediocrity. Which they will, eventually, just to get your job out the system.

This does not make
them happy and it should not make you happy either. You may ask why agencies
don't try and change your system to make it work better. Truth is they try, but
often end up being bullied by the junior marketing teams to curry favour with
their bosses. Once in a process workshop, a brand manager
admitted to briefing an agency to develop a promotion off a creative big idea
that had been bombed. What? Yes, that poor promo agency worked for a month on
work that could not possibly ever be approved. Why? Because the brand manager
had a meeting scheduled with his boss in a month and needed something to
present. Do I need to play you the sound effect again?

What to do? *wrings
hands*

Get
your stakeholders to agree briefs and communication needs from a
business point of view, before the agencies are briefed;

Give
fewer but better briefs;

Give senior
input early in the process;

Approve
the big ideas early, before the agency has developed the full campaign;

And -
and I love this - institute a Wastage Report. Anyone in your Marketing
Team that goes over a maximum of 4 reverts has to sign off the
responsibility for it. They have to answer whether it was really
really necessary to move the logo to the left and change the type to blue?
These reports must be evaluated at the end of each quarter/6-months/year. It's dead easy to see who's costing the company money, time and good work. If
someone is repeatedly going over 4 reverts, then they are either not
briefing well, or the approval process is flawed, or they are a frustrated
creative director. All costly habits.

How good is your brand's communication?

Adtherapy helps Marketers and Agencies create the best possible creative solutions to business challenges. Why? Because better creative works better.
Sometimes the work isn't great because the relationship isn't great, or the briefs are terrible, or account management is weak, or the creative isn't on brand or the positioning isn't clear or the fee agreement is causing resentment or there are too many reverts, or or or...
Whether you are on the Marketing side and struggling with briefs, or your agency relationship, or evaluating the work in front of you, or whether you're in the agency world with your own set of challenges: I'm pretty sure I can help.
Contact me so I can get a detailed understanding of the challenges you are facing and let's work on it.

About Me

Gillian’s background is a mix of marketing, advertising, and management. She formed Adtherapy to help marketers and ad agencies make better advertising together, through better skills and relationships. Gillian also lectures Advertising and Marketing Communications at the School of Management Science at the University of Cape Town.